Patio Updates

Hey everyone, I know I'm averaging like once a month right now but I at least have some pictures to share. Here are some pictures of our completed patio.


Almost done


Grass growing


Other angle

picture of completed bed

Here are some pics of the finished bed. It has tomatoes and beet and carrot seed in it already so more pictures to follow.

raised bed progress

Well I still don't have my raised bed in the ground the 4x4 didn't come in time for the weekend before this last one and this one was mostly a rainy mess. However Saturday I was able to level out the ground for where the box is going to go. Tomorrow is suppose to be the day for installation so keep your fingers crossed. The weather is suppose to be nice. I've got to pick up wire mesh and landscaping fabric for the bottom. You may be thinking why mesh? Well moles are why! I don't want them tunneling up into my bed. I'm going to take some before and after pictures so be on the look out.

Oh and my tomatoes are huge (6+ ") so as soon as the bed is ready some will go in there and the rest will go in the unraised section. I have somewhere around 20+ plants all going strong so I think I will probably give a few away. Now the only problem with that scheme is I have no idea which plants are which at this point. My bad for not being more careful with the label when I transplanted them to bigger pots. So it could be a bit interesting. I started three varieties (red zebra, moonglow, and yellow pear) oh and some hybrid brush like ones that I got seed from my co-worker.

Last bit of garden news: I had 2 whiskey barrel planter out front that weren't being used. I kept thinking I would get flowers to put in there but I didn't want to spend the money on actual plants. So one has leaf lettuce and one has peas. I started the peas a little late so we'll see how they go. Oh and I had another ugly pot I inherited that I put more leaf lettuce in. It was quite a bit of work taking out most of the old soil and mixing in new top soil and compost so keep your fingers crossed.

Actually I lied.... even after I get the raised bed in I'm putting paver stones back by the fence to make a walkway. I started the trench but then filled partially back in while leveling the space for my raised bed. And I've got to get rest of the patch in shape for the rest of my veggies. I want to raise it up party as well but I'm not sure I will have time. I managed to acquired 37 8" paver stones like you would use for a tree ring (the smaller ones) from craig's list for 25$!!! Quite the steal however I'm not sure if that will be enough or I will have enough time to get them put in before I really need plant the rest of my seeds. I'll keep you guys posted. Pictures I swear will follow.

Garden progress

I started my tomato and pepper plants about a month ago. They are growing like crazy. The tomatoes are at least 6 inches. The pepper are progressing a little slower but they are still doing well. It has been so fun to see how much they grow from day to day. It was a stressful when I was waiting for them to sprout. I kept checking and checking to see if anything was coming up. Finally the tomatoes sprouted and then about 4 days later peppers started coming up. I can't wait until it gets a little warmer during the day so I can start putting them outside for part of the day.

I'm about half way done with my 1st raised bed frame. My co-worker has been instrumental in this effort. Basically, I bank rolled the project and I help when I can with the construction. I "supervise" so to speak. I am however working hard to cleanup and prepare the space it is going to go. The plan is to finish assembly and put it in the ground this weekend if we get the 4X4. I had to special order untreated cedar 4x4's because they generally only carry treated ones. However treated wood can leach harmful chemical like arsenic into your soil so I steered clear of that. I can't wait to see it completed. It is going to look super fancy and nice. And hopefully grow awesome veggies!

A day in the life of Me

I thought I should probably provide some insight as to why I haven't been posting lately so here is an accounting of an average day in my life.

6:30-7am - wakeup
7-8am - get tea, pickup kitchen (if still some dishes from the night before), exercise
8-9:15 - shower, get dressed, dry hair, let dog in and out and in and out, get lunch, make oatmeal, pickup house, etc.
9am-6:30pm - drive to work, work and drive home
6:30 - 8pm - change, make dinner, cleanup from dinner
8-9pm - do some housework, lately working outside (mowing lawn, cleaning up my garden, etc.)
9-10pm - start getting ready for bed and spend a little time doing whatever else I need to do (looking stuff up, checking e-mail, cat boxes)
10-10:30 - finish getting ready for bed and maybe read if I'm not to exhausted.
10:30 - 11pm - go to sleep.

So as I can see above I don't have a ton of free time right now. By the time I get to 9pm I'm usually exhausted and just want to go to bed. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who can't just go to bed. I have a routine of stuff I do before getting into bed and it generally takes at least an hour. I'm a very routine person. If I don't set my clothes out for work the next day it can take me twice as long to get ready.

Anyways there you have it a typical day in the life of me.

Today's Smile: Spoiled Puppy

Oh and in case you are wondering, I didn't sleep on couch, I kicked him out of my spot a few minutes later. Little spot stealer!!!

Turkey Vulture infestion

A couple of weeks ago Sean called me on my way home from work to say I should hurry because there was a hawk in the evergreen behind our house. Well by the time I got home there were more and more and more...... I think there were in approximately 60 plus birds when they stopped appearing. Don't believe me! Here are some photos to prove it.

One tree

The other tree

Oh and there were some more in a tree farther down. Crazy huh? Oh and they weren't flying down to the ground so there wasn't something dead. So I'm not sure what they were doing. Luckily most of them were gone by the next night.